In a palimony award believed to be the largest ever made, an Orange County jury ruled Friday that flashlight mogul Anthony Maglica must pay $84 million to a woman he lived, worked and shared his name with for more than 20 years, but never married. The Superior Court jury determined that Maglica, 64, and his former companion, Claire Maglica, 60, had no oral or written agreement to equally share earnings from a former machine shop the couple successfully turned into Mag Instrument Inc.

Move over, Luke and Laura. These days, daytime television watchers are glued to the real-life drama of Claire and Tony, the high society Orange County couple whose bitter palimony battle is being broadcast live from Santa Ana on Court TV. That's the cable network that broadcasts trials from all over the country, and this week network officials say they have been swamped with hundreds of calls from viewers hooked on Maglica vs.

An attorney who once handled Anthony Maglica's wills testified Tuesday that Claire Maglica was well aware a decade ago that she did not own any part of the multimillion-dollar flashlight empire she now says is half hers. * Attorney Bernard P. Simons said that Claire Maglica talked to him in the early 1980s about an agreement that the Anaheim Hills couple signed in 1977 vowing never to merge their assets, and told him that she had sought legal advice about the agreement.

Sobbing on the witness stand and cradling his head in his hands, flashlight magnate Anthony Maglica vowed at his palimony trial Thursday to care for Claire Maglica until the day she dies, but he insisted that he has no legal obligation to do so. "I ask this jury to believe that I will provide for Claire as long as she lives, so she will never have to work. This I feel I will do, so God help me," said Anthony Maglica, 64.

Sobbing on the witness stand and cradling his head in his hands, flashlight mogul Anthony Maglica vowed at his palimony trial Thursday to care for Claire Maglica until the day she dies, but he insisted that he has no legal obligation to do so. "I ask this jury to believe that I will provide for Claire as long as she lives, so she will never have to work. This I feel I will do, so God help me!" said Anthony Maglica, 64, of Anaheim Hills.

His voice hoarse and straining, flashlight mogul Anthony Maglica said Tuesday that he loved Claire Maglica and was always generous in their 23 years together as an unmarried couple, but that he never "made any commitments" to her. He asked jurors to "listen to his heart" as they judge him in the couple's palimony trial, where more than $150 million is at stake.

Claire Maglica broke down on the witness stand Friday, tearfully remembering the day when the flashlight magnate who was her companion of 23 years told her she was neither his wife nor his business partner, but merely his "employee." After returning from a business trip in January, 1992, Claire Maglica said, she inadvertently learned that Anthony Maglica was trying to transfer company stock to his children from a previous marriage.

The trial is a classic case of "he says, she says," but legal experts believe it could lead to the biggest palimony settlement ever in a case that is dripping with enough romantic intrigue, high finance and secrecy to hold captive an audience of courtroom TV watchers.

The trial is a classic case of "he says, she says," but legal experts say it could lead to the biggest palimony settlement ever in a case that is dripping with enough romantic intrigue, high finance and secrecy to hold an audience of courtroom TV watchers captive.

Sex, loads of money, spurned lovers. There's nothing quite like a star-studded palimony case. The term "palimony" was coined in the 1970s when Michelle Triola sued actor Lee Marvin, her former lover, contending that she was promised a share of his earnings in exchange for her wifelike duties over the years they lived together. A judge found there was no agreement to share Marvin's income, but a jury awarded Triola $104,000 to help her get back on her feet. Marvin appealed and won.